Boy Those Dead Guys Could Draw Well

[Mike Hendren]

Did the Golden Age architects  over romanticize/hype their designs through their brillliant drawings?  Do we occasionally lament the de-evolution of their designs based upon their artwork when in fact what they depicted was never built in the first place?

Bogey

[Bill_McBride]

Not to change the subject    but I think Mike Stranz was the best artist of any of the golf architects ever.  Somewhere around here I've got a couple of photos of his sketches from MPCC..........

[Jeff_Brauer]

Mike,

I was going to post something similar on the Flynn thread.  Some of those were great, like the Merion No. 1 drawing.  The style is similar to landscape architectural drawings I have seen at the time and its quite nice.

After seeing those, I went to my computer to see if I can develop a BW rendering style similar to that.  So far, I haven't mastered its "stipple tool."

I know Keith Foster and a few others try to mimic that old style with their master plan drawings.

[Dan Herrmann]

Michael,
I've seen some "as builts" hanging in the Applebrook locker room done by Gil Hanse.  They're exceptional.

[John Foley]

Bogey,

Mackenzie's, Ross & Flynn's drawings are exceptional. In each case I think they both worked with talented draftsman as artists.

Now the renderings that are done are all computer colored from Photoshop / Illustrator / CAD and that personal touch that seems to be in the old drawings just isn't there.

Dan - I'll agree that Gil's are second to none in what is out there now.

[Bill_McBride]

Not to change the subject    but I think Mike Stranz was the best artist of any of the golf architects ever.  Somewhere around here I've got a couple of photos of his sketches from MPCC..........

Here's a page from Ian Andrew's blog that shows a couple of Mike Stranz MPCC sketches as well as the "after" of #11.   Brilliant stuff.

http://thecaddyshack.blogspot.com/2006/03/mike-stranzs-shore-course.html

[Tom_Doak]

The best artist of the old guys was Tom Simpson.  My impression of him and my memory of Mike Strantz is that they were very different personalities, but they were both great artists.

[RJ_Daley]

I suspect that someone has made a giant coup in art collection and has acquired the inventory of Des Muirheads golf architecture paintings after his death. 

I used to go here to see them:
http://web.archive.org/web/19990220083551/www.golfdesigner.com/drawings/drawings_and_renderings.htm

But as you see, the photos of the paintings have been taken down.  I predict that Des Muirheads paintings will become more valuable than almost any other collectible of art or artifact in golf, as time goes by.

How knows, maybe Tommy N., had the inside on those acquisitions... At least maybe he knows what happened to the cache of art that Des left.

Actually, I think Tommy did mention what was about to happen to them in the estate, but I can't remember the details...